Sound tuning is applied to audio systems to optimize sound quality in a listening environment such as a room or an interior of a vehicle. Speaker placement and relative dimensions of positions for seats in a listening environment, the seats being set among speakers, may affect sound tuning settings. When an audio system is set up and sound tuning is applied for particular seat positions there are many situations for which relative dimensions of positions among speakers may change, thereby affecting the sound tuning.
For example, installing speakers on a backside of a vehicle seat, directed at rear passengers in a vehicle, is useful for center imaging. Center imaging is an audio effect, achieved through panning, that creates the illusion of a center speaker even when a center speaker is not physically present. However, a position of a vehicle seat within a vehicle may be altered. The vehicle seat may be adjusted horizontally (forward or backward), vertically (up or down), and/or tilted. Some adjustments to vehicle seat position that accommodate a driver or front passenger may alter the tuning of a speaker or speaker array that is located on the backside of the vehicle seat. For example, when the seat is adjusted forward or backward, a time delay of one or more speakers with respect to other speakers in the sound system is altered, which may affect sonic character due to phase relationships. Also, when a seat height is adjusted, or an incline angle is adjusted, the speaker or speaker array may propagate at a different angle. The frequency response of the speaker and the tuning may no longer be viable or optimized with respect to an original tuning location for the speaker or speaker array.
There is a need for an audio processing system and method that adjusts parameters associated with an audio processor for a speaker system in response to a change in position of a seat to maintain optimal frequency response and tuning for the speaker system.